Rocks in the Forest
by Shadowysn
Summary: {Original Fic} A multiverse-traveling flytrap finds himself with no one else but an alternate version of his sister… [T Rating is for some swear words and a bit of complexity in this story]


His name is Muncher.  
He has an ellipsoid black head and wide mouth to chomp with, supported on its middle by a yellow body of a plant stem with added limbs.  
His arms and feet end in stubs. His hands are surprisingly able to get a firm grasp.  
He is 18 years of age.**  
**As of the time this took place, he was heading through the plain field landscape.

The afternoon sun flooded the area with golden light as he ran through the yellow soil walkway imprinted into the grassy land.  
Following behind him was his sister.

Nipper possessed the same body shape and size as his brother, but was born a different species. While he was considered a young adult, she was only a child with 7 years of age. It didn't stop her from tagging along him.  
She has a white head and green body in contrast to Muncher's color scheme, along with tall and thin, oval-shaped black eyes.

She kept her pacing at the same speed of her brother, keeping up with the older sibling leading the way.

**"Wait up for me!"  
"Don't worry, won't go too fast!"**

They passed a nearby river that held bad memories for them.  
_Nipper screamed, frightened, as the river current thrashed about in the hard thunderstorm, almost dragging her away.  
With an iron grip, Muncher kept holding onto her hands, pulling to try and get her out of the river. Even when it wasn't working, he still held on to his dear sister's life.  
Thunder roared. He felt himself slowly being pulled to the water.  
_**  
**_With a fast act, a stranger grabbed the duo and heaved them out to safety._

In the faraway distance, Kantola Town could be seen.  
_Muncher, age 13, wandered around the supermarket as their adoptive parents split to keep an eye on him and his baby sister.  
He went through 6 aisles already; none of them had any interesting stuff aside from those beautiful but expensive decoration furniture.  
Eyeing the toy section, he tried to convince himself he was already grown-up and didn't need them anymore. But now he found it difficult to hold up to his promises.  
With an internal sigh, he asked his mother if there was anything else for him to be able to get._

_Nipper, age 2, wondered whether the sign dangling from the aisles were alive or not.  
_

They passed the solemn tree as they called it, surrounded by orange-ish decaying leaves as new ones grew from the tree.  
_Nipper, age 6, fell asleep sitting under the tree as Muncher, aged 17, carefully examined a dry, wilting leaf. After discovering not much about it, he checked on his sister.  
Her closed eyes, arm resting on her knee, her blissful unawareness, produced such serenity in an otherwise plain scene, intensified by the sunset's warm light. He sat next to his sister, silently taking guard on the area around the tree.  
_  
Yesterday, they found undiscovered land in their favorite adventure place, a wide open space with jump-height cliffs and hills. The boulder that guarded the cave entrance was gone.  
Inside the cave was a spacious cavern in the hill, with light coming down from the hole in the ceiling.**  
**Walls of yellow rocks and a floor of dirt surrounded a patch of grass that grew in the light. In the middle of the grass, was a small sapling.

Unfortunately, it had already been dinnertime. They didn't get much chance to explore the new area yesterday.  
Now, they were excited in what it would hold for them.

After Muncher helped her sister up after she tripped over a loose piece of ground, they finally arrived at the cave entrance. The glow of the other end grasped the duo's attentions.

Muncher and Nipper both took a deep breath.  
They looked at each other.  
With a nod, they entered through the rocky surroundings of the cave until they found themselves at their desired destination.

The cavern was much the same as when they first found it. The rock walls idly stood still, the grass continued to hold its color, and the single sapling stood proud and tall.  
However, there was something that hadn't been there yesterday.

A floating yellow block. It seemed to be about the same width of his head, and a proportional height.  
On one side of its faces were two horizontal lines located a bit above its middle.  
The duo looked up at the block, gathering in the information and looks of the mysterious object.

**"Hey Munch, what do you think this is?" **Nipper asked.**  
"It's a cube and it's floating. Same as you, I have no idea." **Muncher replied back.  
**  
**After thirty seconds of silent thinking, Nipper rose her head up to look at him.**  
"Remember that time at the market? The myster-cactus?"  
**The myster-cactus was a magician that sometimes came to the market, who acted like a self-proclaimed braggart that tried to extract as many pennies possible. They did not have fond memories of him.

The first time they met, the cactus had argued with one of the other shopkeepers who complained that his tricks were annoyingly littering his supply with their leftovers.  
Muncher, Nipper, and their parents only dared to approach him after the heated argument had died down. After greeting them with seemingly-fake humbleness, he asked if they'd care to spare some money to see his wonderful magical tricks.  
Muncher and Nipper had been suspicious enough already, but their parents decided to give him a shot.

His tricks mostly consisted of hat, table, and confetti tricks that often involved the disappearance and reappearance of an object. One of the notable and decent tricks used a hollow floating block, wherein he would throw something up at it. It'd come out the top and fall back down, but wouldn't fall back on the cactus' outstretched hand again.  
He'd jump up and punch the block to force it to spin, having it spew out 5 varying things.

However, Nipper accidentally knocked over a box of the cactus', spilling out its contents. He blew up in anger and yelled at his sister for touching things that didn't belong to her, saying that she was very well _unbehaved_.  
A tear had rolled from her eye from the sudden shouting as Muncher and their parents confronted the mad cactus, who finally held back the berating and begrudgingly asked us to leave.  
They never wanted anything to do with him again.

Muncher finally answered after replaying the memory.** "...But this block doesn't seem hollow, maybe it won't work the same..."**  
By the time he finished, Nipper had already jumped up and punched the block underneath. What happened next...

"OWW!"  
The block yelled with its now visible mouth.  
The horizontal lines sprung open to reveal vertical lined eyes as a three-bladed red propeller as wide as its owner sprung from the top, frantically spinning as the block tried to right themselves.**  
**A flexible metallic arm suddenly sprung out through a hole that seemed completely invisible when closed. On its end was a sharp, long and gray blade.**  
**  
The block regained its senses faster than the flytrap duo could theirs, pointing its bladed arm at them.  
The two stood still as the block's eyes took in the both of them.  
Muncher was internally readying to attack if the bladed arm would ever get so close to his sister, who was visibly sweating a bit.  
Without lowering the blade, the block spoke.  
"What the hell did you do that for?! Which one of you was it?"

Muncher had been about to take the blame when Nipper beat him to the punch, apologizing and exclaiming that they were just curious.**  
**

* * *

Muncher thought back on the six months of a bizarre life.  
**  
**A gateway dimension to other worlds, housing the ability to infinitely resurrect one from the dead; their new alien friend, a big help on all their other-worldly journeys; and his sister, still being most of her old self even after everything they went through.**  
**  
And now, on this world of gigantic beings, had the three walking down a path.

**"Hello."**

He communicated with his body language.  
**"Heya, bro."** She replied back with the same method.  
"Is this something I'm missing out on?" Everlynn the propeller block asked.

He'd been really thankful for the wordpad helper.  
Ever since Everlynn brought them the aforementioned item five months ago, they no longer had to use their scratchy voice to communicate with others and earn themselves a dry throat in the process.  
But having a second language known only by each other proved to be handy sometimes.  
Like right now, extracting a bit of fun with Every.

**"Discussing who has to wear blocky clothes?"** His sister Nipper teased.  
**"Who looks most tempting to hit under?"** He added his own.

Everlynn wasn't amused, even if she didn't exactly understand. "Yeah, keep moving your body. Not really helpful when I'm carrying this heavy piece of gold."  
Some of her mechanical arms held onto a gigantic golden brick fifteen times the size of her.  
If it wasn't for her flying strength and anomalies of storing a _lot_ of extensions inside her body, its owner would've continued to helplessly worry about getting robbed.

The wheelchair-bound giant had offered energy leaves for delivering the gold brick to a nearby bank. For confirmed registration the giant had imprinted a special card onto the brick.  
They still didn't understand why he'd entrust three tiny beings on a precious metal, but they stopped questioning the logic of every other universe. He didn't want another case of trying to figure out the _Dummer World_...

_The tree had intensified its chirping in a panic as it washed away in a river of... what looked like transparent puke. As it went, the tree pulled out a tuba and honked a sad tune before disappearing underneath.  
Muncher, Nipper, and Everlynn couldn't do anything else but let their jaws drop.  
The individual that cut the tree was bizarre, having two teeth sprouting out the top of its head and various other deformities. In his hand was a living grumpy candy cane, shouting all sorts of profanities against its holder._

He took out the wordpad and began scratching on the side in front of him.  
"Just tryin' to light the mood, is all."  
The drawn words showed through the opposite side. Everlynn rolled her eyes, smirking a bit.  
Nipper looked at her brother and gestured for the wordpad, asking for permission. He gave her the pad without hesitation.

Having nothing else to do, Muncher looked around the area.  
The dirtway was much too big for them and the bushes were two times taller than himself, but that didn't deter him from taking in the sight of a worm that went up to their waist, almost hidden inside a bush.  
It reminded him of a culinary meal in one of the fancy restaurants... he regretted chomping up too much to earn stomach pains after that.

He decided to check on his sister and Everlynn's conversation.

"Well, he was more of an 'organic' type."  
"But you just went up and left him? That's harsh."  
"Hey, my hormones were really haywire at the time."  
"Still, you couldn't give him a second chance? He offered to pay the bill for you."  
"...You have a point... against all the other ones that he was more interested on all the other girls than me."  
"Then why did you still try to find love?"  
Everlynn stumbled a bit before regaining her balance.  
"It wasn't easy for me to hold the pain alone. After my only two friends went missing, I had to find some way to ease the burden.  
But every time I tried to form a relationship it almost always ended badly."  
She looked down in contemplation and a bit of sadness.  
Nipper scratched her head and averted her eyes away, unsure of what to do after triggering a sensitive spot.

"...Sorry for reminding you of that."  
"A swim with the sharks is an apology accepted." Everlynn stopped talking for a while to consider her words. "Actually, maybe just goats."  
"But I'm a kid!"  
"A 7 year old in biology. But you're not bringing any stuffed baby goats, are you N?"  
"...Alright, but I still think lollipops are the coolest thing in the world!"  
The propeller block shot a small glance at the white-head plant.  
"Which world then?"  
Nipper didn't think of a comeback as she noticed the erratic, tired hovering patterns her friend was doing.

"Are you still strong enough to lift that all the way?"  
"Hey, we're getting some energy leaves for this. Besides, this isn't the first time I've done really heavy lifting."  
"But your flying is off and wobbly. Maybe you should take a rest."  
"No, it's-"  
The ground began to shake, indicative of a coming giant. They stopped in their tracks and hid in some tall grass clusters nearby as the source of the shaking came nearer.

The giant's clothes were worn out as his beard sprung everywhere on his chin. His eyes were droopy and his face reflected a grumpy mood.  
He'd appeared not to have noticed the three, until he quickly closed in and snatched the gold brick, taking Everlynn with him.

"Hey! Let go!"

As the two witnessed the theft of the metal and their friend, the giant ran back down the path he took with Everlynn struggling and futilely trying to break free with her combat arms. They had barely any effect on the thief slash kidnapper, who proceeded to squish her a bit with his chubby hand.

They wasted no time in chasing after the giant, both taking out a powerup item.

As the giant thief continued running, a grappling hook with a metallic rope latched onto his back unbeknownst to him. The flytrap duo flew towards him by Muncher's connected gray helmet. Nipper held on tightly to him, a growing fireball floating in her free hand which was now colored red as well as her other hand.

They quickly dashed towards the giant's neck as soon as they landed, and readied their mouths and the fireball to attack.

With a swoop, they bit down _hard _and burnt a patch of skin.

* * *

_...Muncher.  
That's his name. __**My **__name._

_Trees and grass around.  
Still standing.  
He's still standing..._

_Where are they? Where's sister and Every?  
He has to find them._

_His head was paining._

_A forest? He's in a forest.  
Need to get out of the forest.  
An open space there.  
A house._

_He hobbled along.  
Balance and strength faltered every step.  
Can't keep up...  
He decided to lie down and rest.  
Rest...  
_

* * *

Sometimes, I wonder about the Mushroom Kingdom heroes and their adventures.  
Especially Mario and Luigi.

They keep the whole kingdom safe from Bowser for about every time he tried to invade... they get recognition from it. Fame and glory as knights.  
That's not the only type of event they get involved in.

What do I do? Sell my family's homegrown vegetables to earn a living.

Not like I'm trying very hard to start an adventure of my own. Gave up on it three years ago after realizing the difficulty it presented. Seems that I'd never been fit to do what the Mario brothers can do, even when I jump as high and run as fast as them.  
Still, it's a bit of an interesting topic to think about.

Well, here's my last customer of the day.

"Hello... what's your name again?"  
"Carell." I replied.  
"Ah, Carell. I came here to get some cucumbers and salad."  
I search under the counter and take out two baskets containing the needed veggies.  
"How much do you want?"  
"Four cucumbers, two salad."  
I ran the calculations in my head. "16 coins please."

"Say, did you hear of what Harewing's only child did?"  
Not a big fan of gossip, but it's better than attending the counter for almost every day.  
I casually replied. "No, I didn't hear. What'd he do?"  
"He painted his neighbor's house wall with nice art! That boy really knows his colors. Too bad his stingy neighbor had it all cleaned up."  
In the midst of more gossip, my mind pieced this up in my head:  
We all have reasons for doing things, even when you're not thinking about it. Even when there doesn't seem to be...  
That boy's neighbor probably only needed a bland color on his wall...

After that, I closed up shop. Putting the baskets, money box, water bottles both full and empty into the wagon, I took up the wagon's arms and headed in the direction back home.

It used to be me and my family in that single house. I was a clumsy girl back then, accidentally tripping over myself or causing something to fall. Thankfully everything fragile was kept in someplace safe from me.

I still won't understand why they had to be so strict when it came to other people.  
They'd stop me from going too far away, lest I get captured by 'baddies' in the town. They also disallow anyone else from coming to my house, even if they were friends, people I could trust and have fun together. I learnt that the hard way, and then they never left me alone until I got my job.  
I've failed to keep contact with my only childhood friend Bobber, a grasshopper, because of that.

Now I hear he's moved to university in a faraway place, and I cannot help but silently curse myself for not attending his farewell party.

Look, I love my parents for what they've done for me, but I don't think I can stand being under the roof with their rules for just one day anymore.

To my right, there was a big collection of markets in the Huttcenter's wide townspace. Usually it would be crowded in the afternoon and the shopkeepers there would often finish selling their stocks.  
It was an evening and most shopkeepers there were just about prepared to leave like me.  
With most of their products still in their possession, I can tell that their business didn't thrive today.

Not that I'd always profit well enough every day, but I don't handle heated arguments that well... the day I snapped my jaws threateningly at someone complaining one too many times about my space usage was also the day where I decided not to be near those people anymore.

Besides, I have enough customers to live an okay life.

* * *

After I passed through the forest separating my home and the town, and the broken old fountain, a land marker for the first time I faced bullying from the local school kids, I began contemplating the things that happened.

Just before I could've gotten out of earshot, I heard one of the keepers complain about the inflation caused by a company setting ship on Huttcenter.  
Judging by the mood some of the shopkeepers had, I took a hunch to guess that it'll change the tide a lot for us small sellers. I just hope it's not going to be that bad.

Business aside, taking a visit to the local school 'Caramelia' wasn't as bad as I thought. The children in the playground can get into accidents, but they were rare and no one was seriously injured.  
When class came into session, they had lessons like Languages, Science and Maths, but there were also some fun lessons like Arts and Crafting, Drama Studio and the Computer Room.  
I thought about visiting more places to get the feel of what it was to become an actual social person.

Then a teacher asked for my name, age and hometown. They raised an eyebrow when I said my age was 7.  
And with the wagon I carried around, I didn't think they'd let me off the hook without a lot of questions.

Fortunately they didn't press into the issue any further, otherwise it would've became one long and awkward conversation.  
Although going to school as a young child in mind and age, like normal children, was quite something to think about.

Now that I see my final destination, I wanted to hurry it up so I can take a rest from work.  
My two-story house and big plain garden circle separating the forest wasn't fancy, but it serves well.

The house's plaster gave off a faded yellow color. The window on the side of the top floor wall in front of me, lead to the inside of my bedroom in which I really want to just hurry and doze off on the bed... as soon as I can reach the door, with its flower decoration I got recently still hanging on it.

Parking and tying the wagon to a piece of wooden fence, I checked the money box.  
198 coins. Minus 90 for taxes and 35 for my parents, leaves me with 73. Not bad, but could've been better.

I readied myself to take the wagon contents back in my house- _wait, what's that?  
_Noticing something on my garden, I went to check it out- _That's someone! They're lying on the ground and their head is bleeding..._

Checking over the blunt injuries, I noticed their bit of likeness to me. Not wasting any more time musing around, I carried them on my shoulder, supporting the limp head with my other arm and hurried back to my house.

After a quick look around the garden, I opened the door and guided myself through the living room furniture in order to reach the wide couch positioned in front of the window. Laying the unfortunate victim on it, I searched my cabinets for anything to help reduce the bleeding.

Finding a red mushroom, I went back to the person still unconscious on the couch. Opening their mouth and feeding them the mushroom, I tilted their head upright to get them to swallow it.  
My breathing took a slow approach as I kept my eyes on the stranger, not leaving them from my sight.

After a minute the injuries began to heal, which was a relief.  
Breathing a sigh, I sat down on another couch.

Hold on, I forgot about my stuff! I quickly went outside and scooped up some of the wagon contents, bringing them back and laying them down on a table, repeating until it was all inside safe and sound.

I sat on the couch facing the one they were lying on, to get a better look at them.

It appeared to be the 'Muncher' species much like the last one I saw, who needed a pot to carry him around. But this one... they have limbs like me. After a quick inspection I found out it was a 'he' but I have no way to check his age.

Wiping off sweat, I decided it was time to meet with my bed after seeing the other peacefully resting on the couch.  
I'll just go check on him later when I refresh myself. Heading up the stairs, I entered my room and collapsed on the bed's mattress.

Does this day have any more surprises for me?

* * *

_Muncher woke up on the grass, assaulted by the sun. With a gasp, he quickly sat up and looked around.  
The gateway dimension? What was he doing here?_

_With a look behind he found a gray grandfather clock, its pendulum not swinging side by side but back and forth. A worrying aspect of the pendulum was the number of spikes adorned on its sides as if it was meant to be a hazard._

_He crawled away in surprise, before thinking about where his friends were._

_He suddenly remembered._

_The clock tower. The angry mob. Everlynn, him and his sister fighting them off.  
His misstep and a push by a mobber. Wind flowing through his body, before pain all throughout...  
Did he... die?  
But he still feels as alive as before his 'death'..._

_He recalled a video game, as it was called, back in one of his visits to the supermarket.  
There were _

_**extra lives **__inside the game.  
Whenever the character in the game died, they would be brought back somewhere safe with one less extra life._

_Whatever happened, it currently wasn't of any use trying to figure it out when he had to find his friends.  
He got back up on his legs and felt the grass on his feet. He remembered stopping the pendulum in place to get to that gloomy, dark city filled with hundreds of people suspicious of him and his friends._

_The poor state of some of them, and the executions that ended up with... incredibly disgusting carnage didn't paint a good picture. What's worse were the rich ones; those ended up mocking everyone lower than them, including the interdimensional travelers. They'd also actively try to get rid of the poor people that adorned the streets; he remembered Everlynn giving them a glare to incinerate an entire statue as they got rid of an old homeless man._

_That world was hopeless. He wished his friends weren't sticking around in there any longer, that they never visited that place._

_Before he attempted to go back inside the dusty pendulum world, a white glow intensified around his feet, causing him to step back._

_With a short *pop* sound, his sister now occupied the space the glow had been before, lying down on the grass._

_**"Sister!"  
**__He quickly carried Nipper back to her feet as she woke up.  
__**"Huh? Bro... Is that really you?!"  
**__She assaulted him with a hug as a tear was let loose from her eyes.  
__**"Please don't tell me this isn't real! Please don't tell me this isn't real!"  
**__Muncher was ultimately relieved that his sister came back. __**"Don't worry, it's okay now! This is real! We're both back together..."  
**__He wiped a tear from her eye as she let go of the hug. __**"I... you fell off the tower... I saw the mob down there... I thought you..."  
"But I'm not, and that's all that matters now. Don't cry anymore, we're okay." **__Muncher comforted her.  
__**"And... and then they got me. The mob..." **__She began.__**  
**__Muncher acted before she got to reveal the whole situation.  
__**"No, please don't tell me the details. That's now in the past. We're safe back here."  
**__His sister calmed down as the remaining intensity from the chase faded.  
But where's Everlynn?_

_"Fuck!" He made out the voice to be hers. As he and his sister turned their heads in the direction of the pendulum clock, Everlynn hovered there with various injuries, bruises and a missing propeller blade. How she still floated with a missing propeller piece was a mystery.  
"I just told them to stop messing up the homeless and us, then they get mad!" Everlynn cursed out. "Ugh, still having to deal with these kinds of people..."  
She finally noticed the two, along with the signs of emotion they'd been pouring out.  
"...oh man, I forgot to tell you about the respawn system." Every blurted out. "Totally sorry for not explaining that sooner."_

_He and his sister crossed their arms, demanding an answer._

_Everlynn coughed. "Alright alright, I'll explain it. Just, don't get horrified, I'll come back later like you two. I guess it's kinda my fault..."  
With that said, her claw arm came out before using it to punch through a hole in herself.  
She used her claw to twist something inside, forming an expression of pain, before falling to the grass with the arm dislodging out of her body._

_Shock overtook both siblings._

_Everlynn reappeared in her original, uninjured form next to the grandfather clock again as her old body laid still.  
She began to explain.  
"We're kind of immortal once we connect to this gateway dimension. When we die, your mind, or soul, gets moved to another body inside the gateway.  
Your old one gets removed if it's in here..."  
Everlynn's previous body faded away.  
"...or it remains if it's in a world. Like the ones we go to."_

* * *

What...  
The gateway...

That was from five months ago.

He slowly woke up as the memory faded.  
When he came to his senses, sitting up on the blue couch inside someone's house, a small pain ached from his head. When he rubbed on the spot, he didn't feel any injuries or deformities anywhere around it.

Getting up from his rest, he found the living room giving off a vibe of normalcy he had been familiar with back in his home world, unlike any others in the various worlds he explored.  
The living room had light yellow walls, and the wooden tiles of the floor were beige-colored.  
The outside had a light blue sky adorned with white clouds, really rather the same as his home's normal sky.

Next to the right of the sofa was a small table holding a potted plant and some tidbits the owner only bothered enough to place them there. A blue carpet decorated with a gray oval laid next to his sofa along with two others.  
An offline television was placed on a desk along with DVDs in the free space next to it, while the window curtains closed behind him swung in a light little breeze.  
He briefly considered simply resting in the couch until someone came, but ultimately decided to get off the couch and explore the place.

In the far right corner of the room from his end was a dining table, placed next to some stairs leading to the top. A chair sat next to the table as two others stood in the corner, unused. An open window had the light shine on the set.  
What seems to be the entrance door in the middle of the right wall from his end was currently locked for the outside.  
An open door in the far left corner revealed the kitchen. Muncher went inside.

A table smaller than the previous stood in the middle of the kitchen. Some dirty plates were left in the sink unwashed, and some of the tools had not appeared to be used for a long time.  
The bathroom was in the furthest end of the kitchen from the door. He, thankfully, didn't need a conventional bathroom due to his photosynthetic nature.  
He left the kitchen due to finding nothing of interest.

On the wall faced by the televisions front were pictures of the family that lived here.  
He could make out two piranha plants.  
One had arms and legs like him, the other was limbless and in a pot. And then...  
The last member looked _a lot _like his sister. She appeared to be the family's only child due to the lack of any other juvenile member photos.

A thought entered him.  
Was this her original parents?  
Was he back in his home world?  
He turned to the stairs. If he finds nobody there, he might as well wait for a while before leaving the place, writing down a note for the owners.

Taking the first step... *CREAK*  
He froze. He wondered if he'd wake them up.  
Slowly, he went up another. *CREAK*  
Another step...

...  
It turned out it was the kitchen door making those sounds after he'd clumsily left it open, prompting him to go back and close it.  
Now more confident, he went up the stairs at a normal pace.

After reaching the last step, two doors awaited on the walls behind him.  
One of them was a worn-out plain red door that had seen better days as various chips and pieces of the door were gone. Knocking on it yielded no reply.  
Trying to open it revealed that it was locked.

The other one was a white door with green sides that seemed to be maintained well. Knocking was the same as last time. He opened the door carefully.

The opened wardrobe faced him from its bedroom corner, the clothing inside sitting in folded stacks or hung on hangars, not having been tampered with since a long time ago. A brown chair took the spot next to the wardrobe.

The window shined upon the carpet as he saw the white dresser next to his sister soundly sleeping on the bed.  
With no intentions to get her out of the dream realm, he sat on the chair next to the wardrobe.

He began to think about his original parents.  
The only memory of his interactions with them was about the time he was 4 months old. He could faintly remember their troubled moods, giving off an aura of unease that also affected him. His lack of information held him back from finding out what happened.  
Now, with the recent discovery of Nipper's old family, a long burnt-out candle in him sparked to life.  
He wants to find out where _his_ missing family was.  
But he needed to get Everlynn first.

Leaping from the chair, he headed downstairs and went outside. He expected a greeting, maybe some jokes about the current or past situation from the cuboid propeller block.  
To his confusion, Everlynn wasn't anywhere. After a survey around the house field, he began to worry.  
Intent on getting his sister up, he went back inside the house.  
Careful not to trip over some slippers, he went to the upper floor before reentering the bedroom. Nipper sat up on the bed, blinking her eyes awake.

In a turn of events, Nipper jumped in shock as he approached, eyeing him carefully.  
**"Why are you in my bedroom?!"  
**She talked as if he was a stranger, adding to his confusion.**  
**He tried to remind her that he was his brother...  
**"It's me, your brother! Don't you remember?"  
"Brother? I don't have a brother!"  
**It didn't work well.

After her outburst, she sighed. **"You hit your head too hard to think you're related to me. I found you on my field, head bleeding. I patched you up, but then you come up here and scare me." **She directed a look of annoyance at him. **"I'm willing to let you stay in my house, but not forever. Please don't think of me as your sister, I don't recall ever meeting you."  
**Muncher was ultimately frightened. She doesn't remember his care, his playfulness, their adventures, nothing. He tried, one more time, to try and get his sister to snap out of it.  
**"You remember the time you fell in the mud and I helped you out of it? The time I got some berries for you? Do you remember anything about me?"  
**Nipper only raised her eyebrow. **"I did fall in mud before, but it was my parents that got me out of there. Why keep insisting that I'm supposed to know you?"  
**His demeanor collapsed as he fell back on the chair, unable to take in the events all at once. His _sister _didn't recognize him at all...  
A thought entered him.  
Was she actually his sister or not? Her identification was really, really similar, and he had no idea how this was screwing up his recognition of people...

As her visible confusion of him lingered, he asked some questions in defeat to check her final identity.** "...What's your name, and your opinion of the multiverse theory? Have you met someone called Everlynn?"  
**She shook her head. **"No, I should get my answers first. Who are you, how'd you get wounded, and anything else I can piece together to understand."  
**He supposed it was fair enough, seeing as he'd been the one to instigate the whole thing.  
**"I'm Muncher. Named after my species."  
**Trying to recollect his previous events in memory, he found almost nothing about his friends whereabouts.  
A sudden dreaded feeling came up.  
Something happened to Nipper and Everlynn.  
He was pulled from the gateway. Forcefully.

**"...I don't really think you should be going around with a name like that."  
**Interrupting his thoughts, she got off her bed.  
He noted the ridiculous familiarity of the 'unknown' nipper, with her personality having a distinguishing difference from his sister. Even if she was decidedly less cheerful and ongoing, he hoped she would thaw out on him.  
He needed to find his friends _fast_, if his memories were of any indication. And if whatever harmful was still around, he'd need someone to tag along.  
**  
"...Are you okay? You're just standing there."**  
He snapped out of his stupor and replied back.  
**"I want to head outside and explore the area to find my friends. If I'm lucky, I should find them. If not... I don't really have a place to stay."**  
In truth, there was an arising problem. He doesn't know if this world _is _his homeworld.  
If it is, it should be quite easy to find the entrance to the gateway.  
Otherwise...  
**"No place to stay? Did you travel here, or are you homeless?" **'Nipper' replied.**  
"I have a home, but I've been outside for most of the time, so I guess I'm traveling."  
**She stood in thought for a moment, before shrugging.  
**"I guess you can stay, as long as you do some work around here. By the way, you still didn't tell me how you got wounded."  
**Trying to remember any other event that put him here, only led to a blur.  
**"...I don't really know. Something happening to my friends, and then I felt myself getting pulled to somewhere." **She raised an eyebrow, but probably didn't think much of it.**  
**  
**"My name's Carell. I'm a shopkeeper who sells vegetables at the nearby town for a living.  
...The multiverse theory is a bit saddening, to think that there are versions of me who are better or worse off. It's also a bit far-fetched in my opinion.  
...I've never heard of anyone named Everlynn. Are they your friend?"  
**Muncher was both relieved and saddened to get this out of the way, noting that some things were definitely of notice.  
Carell didn't believe or had curiosity about the multiverse theory and hadn't met anyone with the name Everlynn, which most likely corresponded to his friend too.  
...Either his sister's suffered really big memory and personality loss, or Carell was an entirely separate person from his sister.  
Both of those were bad in different ways, and he didn't want to think why.  
**"Yeah, Everlynn's my friend. I want to head out as soon as possible and, if you don't mind, have you come with me to help look for them."  
**She hesitated, before giving a nod.  
**"Well, as much as you thought I was your sis, you seem nice. I didn't have anything to do today except resting so I guess I'll come with you. For a short while, atleast."  
**His mood was uplifted upon her reply. Deciding to apologize about the mistook identity, he replied back.  
**"I... have a sister who's strikingly similar to you. I'm sorry for confusing you with her."  
**Carell shrugged. **"It's alright. Do you know your way around these places?"  
**Muncher thought for a second, before shaking his head.  
**"Then it's probably for the best that I do really come with you..."  
**

* * *

Muncher opened the house's entrance door, stepping outside for the first time after waking up.  
Following behind him was Carell, locking the door behind with her house keys.

**"So, where's the town again?" **He asked.  
Carell packed some of her coins in her coin bag.  
**"It should be down the path. Follow me."**  
She began to lead the way, Muncher following suit.

Even though he was on his way to the town to hopefully get some answers, he still couldn't help but worry about getting back to the gateway. He checked whilst he had prepared, and he didn't have the Exit-Tracker with him.  
He gave his tracker to Everlynn when both hers and his sisters were stolen by gobs, a cross-breed of goblins and slimes.  
If, judging by the freshness of this memory, it meant that there was only _one_ he could use right now, and it was with his friend, who was _missing_.

Oh, how he hated and regretted this.

**"You okay there?"**  
Carell noticed his distraught expression affecting his pace.  
Muncher perked up to look at her.  
**"I just... I hope I can find my friends as soon as possible. They mean so much to me..."  
**Upon hearing his reply, Carell glanced down, her eyes softening for a little bit.**  
**She looked back at him with a bit of determination on her features.  
**"...I'll try to find them as soon as possible. I won't be leaving you here, alone."**

As they neared the forest, he smiled and nodded in reply.  
**"Thank you."**

Whilst they treaded through the forest's dirt path, two nearby rocks stood by each other.

A small rock with a quarter size of the other, but clean and stable.  
A large, roughened rock with two wide cracks almost separating it's right and left sides, looking to fall over but still going strong.

* * *

**Author's Note:**  
Oh man, after this sat in my documents for a few years, I managed to finish the first chapter!

As you can see, it's a fic of an original universe that borrows a bit of things from the Mario series, mainly the artstyle, _(if it's to be drawn)_ and the mentions of Mario and Luigi as real people in the homeworld that Carell _(AU Nipper or just strikingly similar?! o_O) _resides in, but other than that it's mostly original content as far as I can see!

This original fic is also actually a fanfic of the real original universe I have in my head!  
It mainly consists of Muncher, Nipper and Everlynn venturing through almost all the worlds the gateway has to offer! Y'know, without Muncher getting lost and Nipper and Everlynn going missing.

The original universe is actually meant to be for an interactive game _(RPG, maybe? I don't really know most of the game genres apart from FPS, sandbox, etc.) _which may not ever see the light of day, considering my absolute procrastination.

In it, you play as Muncher or Nipper _(both if you have a 2__nd__ player) _like in the Mario series, and with Everlynn backing you up!  
_*Mario & Luigi series intensifies*_  
Then you get to explore the other worlds, help out a bit, collect items and upgrades, and mingle with the local people! Fight off any enemy and fulfill any quest you'll do!  
Or, for the more devilish people...  
_**chaos, harm, and decimation.  
**_**  
**Everlynn may not really agree on your immoral spree and object to it though, but you can choose to ignore, _attack, enslave, or mind-rape her_...  
Yeah, sounds fun but I'm giving the betrayal and mind-break angst a limit, by way of gateway undoing whatever you do to Everlynn once it goes too far, erasing her memory in the process.  
It's a freedom game, but with some limits. :P

Anyways, I really hope you enjoyed this, and really hope I can pick up the pace and do more of the chapters.  
Or if you didn't like it, then it's ok, you're not suited for this I guess.

See ya then!


End file.
